I bought my ZTE through T Mobile in February. Fulfilled the 40 day activation and had the phone unlocked. In November the phone wouldn't hold a charge and I called T mobile to get it repaired. They said I would have to send it to ZTE for repair as I had it unlocked. I did that. Rather than fix my phone ZTE sent a new phone. SO of course the IMEI number id different. When I ask T Mobile to unlock. I only get I need to fulfill the 40 day activation. But, I have. After repeated phone calls and store visits, I still cannot get this phone unlocked. T mobile has been very customer friendly in the past. But, I am beyond annoyed a this point. The t mobile guy at the store even resorted to calling customer service for me and they still couldn't help. Any advice would be appreciated.

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I completely understand your situation with the new ZTE device and needing it unlocked as the previous one was unlocked. While we do have steps to unlock your device if it has recently been exchanged, there are still requirements that have to be met. The device must show usage on our network before we can request an unlock code. Do you still have an active account with us? Or have you used it on our network yet?

I'm curious if it's already unlocked since it came straight from ZTE vs a warranty exchange with us. Let me check with a few of our Community Pillars to see if they have run into a similar situation.

gramps28tidbits do either of y'all have experience with this? Have you exchanged an unlocked T-Mobile device with a manufacturer? If so, did it arrive unlocked or did you have to request the replacement (from the manufacturer) be unlocked?

Hey, darriea923! This situation's a little complicated, for sure. I'm assuming that you've already tested a non-TMO SIM in the phone and it's not working, right? If that's the case, then you are probably bumping into issues with our unlock team because when ZTE (or any manufacturer, for that matter) provides equipment directly to a customer (as opposed to working through our supplemental exchange process), those IMEIs aren't listed in our database as equipment that's eligible for unlock (and for devices that still use codes, we won't have a listing for the code if we don't have the IMEI in that database).

So, if I'm reading this correctly, there are two possible solutions here. 1. Work with ZTE to see if they can exchange this device for a factory-unlocked version, since the original that you sent to them was unlocked. 2. Work with our T-Force team to submit an Unlock Escalation -- we will send an email to an offline team who can contact ZTE to verify that they provided the device and work with them for unlock permission. We may need, in some cases, paperwork from the exchange process that you went through with them (although that's not always necessary). These escalations can take a good bit longer than the traditional unlock process for equipment that *is* in our database, but it might be the best route here!

Got it, thanks for confirming that! In that case, I would recommend reaching out to our T-Force team through Twitter or FB so that we can complete the escalation process I mentioned above. I don't want you to have spent a single penny in vain!

I get your frustration, darriea923 because it sounds like such a simple task to unlock a device not to mention the back and forth between everyone. We recommended T-Force as there is a slight chance that we had the code in our database. After doing a bit more research, you likely will not be able to get the device unlocked through us because we're only provided unlock codes for devices that were sold by us vs the manufacturer. The only recommendation we have at this point is to work with a third-party unlock service. While we cannot guarantee the success of the unlock through a third-party, it's worth a shot.